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Album Review: Burning Codes - Rivers of Hope

A consistently outstanding composer, Paul Archer aka Burning Codes has again produced an album which I find difficult to describe without using words like wonderful, amazing and brilliant.

'Rivers of Hope' is the third album from Burning Codes following the debut self-titled album of 2008 and last years Burning Codes 2. When an artist like Burning Codes produces consistently good albums I'm afraid I have to write another positive review for the band.

I'd compare the music of Burning Codes as a cross between Yo La Tengo and Snow Patrol with a touch of gospel in the mix. The songs individually contain massive big sounds such as haunting backing vocals and thundering drums which revolves around the hugely positive lyrics at it's core. This formula is what the Burning Codes sound is about and the result is a very uplifting positive listening experience.

The album kicks off in fine style with 'We Are Like Gold'. The title track is another piece of positivity where we listen and believe that 'Rivers of Hope flow through us'. My favourite track is the indie sounding 'Switch' which wouldn't sound out of place on any indie rock radio station in the world. I love the chilled out Sunday morning feel to 'The Ladder'.

The one criticism I have of the album is that the quality tails off by the end of the ten tracks and they don't compare favourably to the tracks written about above. 'Rivers of Hope' is still however a quality album and Burning Codes is a great band that I won't ever get tired of spreading the word about.

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It's been in the news that 25 years ago Irish Summers got a bit more interesting with the arrival of Féile festivals. I was lucky enough to be a mid teen attender at Feile 1994 with great memories of dancing to Blur, the dangerous mosh pit of 'House of Pain' the rock and roll swooning of Primal Scream and perfect pop of Bjork.

There are a few funny clips from Feile on Youtube but we'll start with the line-ups!

The poster for the first Féile in 1990 was .....

In 1991 we had:

And in 1992 there was .....

There are currently no posters online for the Feiles of 1993 or the last one in Turles is 1994. Taken from Wikipedia here are a list of bands from each year: